Now, I don’t want to come over all Nadine Dorries on the issue, but I think it may be time for BBB – Bring Back Boris.
As the US President, Donald Trump, continues on his hideous rampage, trampling over Ukrainian bodies to cut a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, could Boris Johnson be the final hope the world has to make him see sense? For sense is sorely lacking in the Oval Office right now. Machismo, ego and wacko are in full effect. But not sense.
During the US election campaign Trump famously boasted he would end the Ukraine war, saying: “I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done – I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” Now in office and finding himself criticised by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for opening talks with Russia without Ukrainian involvement, Trump’s behaviour has quickly mutated from grand posturing to a petty cruelty, which is becoming familiar in this administration.
Trump has wrongly called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” despite having all the evidence before him that shows this to be entirely untrue – Ukraine’s elections have been suspended in line with its martial law under which the country has existed since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Meanwhile, Zelensky and the Ukrainian people are exhausted. They’re bitter, too, that the US hand of friendship, so critical for survival, has turned out to just be another hand grasping at the country’s mineral wealth. For what has really riled Trump in recent days is Ukraine failing to sign off a deal which would give the US access to half of the country’s $11.5trn (£9trn) rare earth minerals.
Frustrated and enraged, Zelensky has attacked Trump for parroting Russian propaganda, saying he “lives in this disinformation space”. Which brings us to Boris Johnson.
Trump is the classic case of someone who spends way too much time on social media. He only engages with and believes content which confirms views he already holds. Just imagine what Trump’s X algorithm serves him each morning.
And so he – like many others hooked on the addictive nature of social media – is no longer able to identify between fact and fiction. Instead, he just trusts people he likes and distrusts the rest. It sounds remarkably simplistic. Well, he is. But Trump likes Johnson. He has apparently called him several times since his inauguration and refers to him as “a good man”.
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is doing an impressive job of keeping a constructive dialogue going with Trump while continuing to support Kyiv and retain integrity. Who would have thought calling Zelensky a “democratically elected leader”, as Starmer has done, would one day be a brave move? But it is.
What would be even braver would be to persuade Johnson to take on a role as a Trump whisperer during this peace process. Johnson has huge credibility in Ukraine and can also speak man to man with the US President.
Among his missiles of misinformation in the past week, Trump has inferred that it was Ukraine that started the war, as opposed to the reality that Russia poured in troops, unleashing a brutal assault which has killed up to 80,000 troops, tens of thousands of civilians and displaced more than eight million people.
And he has said that Zelensky has done a “terrible job” – a slur even Putin might contest, bearing in mind the Russian leader had thought his attack on Ukraine would be complete “within days”. But Johnson is a man with personal understanding of how powerful men play fast and loose with the truth.
And while he has publicly said it was nonsense that Ukraine started the war, he stopped short of criticising Trump, saying the President’s comments “are not intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action”.
Few beyond Johnson might be able to justify how a world leader can use language “not intended to be historically accurate”. In another Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the US and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle.”
A couple more fact-checking points: Zelensky was actually a popular television star, hence his electoral success; and according to the US special inspector general, America has pledged about $183bn to the war effort.
But Trump is right about one thing: without him, it is hard to work out how this war will be settled. Particularly as he has now invited Putin out of the cold and up to the table.
Which is why Zelensky has few cards left to play. One remaining may be to put hope in Johnson, who he calls “a true friend of Ukraine”.
Johnson does have many qualities. Albeit none of them were suited to being prime minister. He was a terrible leader of this country, lacking the integrity, attention to detail, work ethic and backbone to make decisions, stick to them and enact them. But he can run a campaign – and people like him.
Zelensky has been moved by his genuine allyship. Trump, meanwhile, obviously likes his roistery-doistery English schoolboy schtick that the rest of us grew bored of in 2021.
And desperate times call for desperate measures. This could be the moment Johnson redeems himself with the British public after failing us so badly during Partygate and beyond. He could be a valued go-between to make Trump understand the true plight of Ukraine and the criminal opportunism of Russia.
There is no point in European leaders berating Trump’s monstrous behaviour. He will not hear them. He must be flattered and fawned over to even begin comprehending the message. Yes, Johnson is the man.
We are dealing with a thin-skinned narcissist here with only a casual relationship to the truth. And it takes one to know one.
Alison Phillips was editor of the Daily Mirror from 2018-24
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